Five years of iPod nano reviews: a retrospective

The iPod nano has officially been around for more than half of the iPod's …

Third-gen nano: the nano gets fat

From left to right: first, second, and third-gen nanos.

Nobody likes it when the whole world remembers that one year when you packed on the pounds and became rotund, but that's generally the sole characteristic remembered from the third-generation iPod nano. Introduced in 2007, this was the most radical design change to the nano since Apple introduced the original two years prior, but why?

Though most people don't remember the 3G nano as being the first to bring video capabilities to the line, it was. Apple undoubtedly diddled with this new and aesthetically unpleasing design in order to increase the screen size—by 80 percent, in fact—so that watching video on the nano wouldn't be such a chore. Still, we (and apparently the rest of the world) felt that the nano's new shape felt awkward in the hand, and we longed for the device to reclaim its girlish figure.

Fourth-gen nano: slim is back in

By 2008, Apple figured out that people just weren't into the fat nano and reverted the nano back to its original profile. The fourth-generation nano did not, however, entirely go back to its previous design. The device maintained its significantly larger screen—the exact same size and resolution as the third-gen nano—and also gained an accelerometer for use with Cover Flow, games, Genius Playlists, and a new UI.

This was the first nano that many people remember as being video-capable, possibly because it was the first nano that people actually wanted to buy with that feature. Apple was also a year into the iPod touch at this point, and wanted to bring the touch's cool-looking Cover Flow feature to the rest of its iPod line. The implementation was strange, though, and only worked with the click wheel.

The 4G nano also came with a few games that made use of the accelerometer, though most iPod games by that point did not. (In September of 2008, the App Store was extremely new to the iPhone and iPod touch, but iPods had already had some basic games for a couple of years.)

Fifth-gen nano: the camera arrives

Left to right: first, second, fourth, and fifth-gen nanos.

The fifth-generation iPod nano can be summed up as such: an even bigger screen, built-in Nike+, a built-in FM tuner, and the somewhat-unexpected addition of a video camera. One could argue that, while the third-gen nano was the biggest divergence from the line in terms of design, the fifth-gen saw the largest number of major features added at once.

At the time of the 5G nano's introduction in late 2009, Flip video cameras were just becoming popular as a cheap and convenient way to shoot HD video. Though Apple's iPhone 3GS—announced just months earlier—could also take video, it was clear that the addition of the video camera to the nano was meant as a way to get in on the low-cost digital video camera market. We recently made a jab at how few people actually used the nano's video camera, but kids and teenagers who were too young to have iPhones or iPod touches indeed found it useful.

The FM tuner was also somewhat unexpected, though it seemed to fit in perfectly with the nano-using niche. We found it to be of particular use at the gym, where you can often tune in your Walkman (yikes!) to a certain FM frequency to listen to the TV, and this of course is where the Nike+ features came in useful as well. No longer did users have to buy an extra dongle to stick onto the nano (though they did have to buy a dongle for their shoes). These two features combined to solidify the nano's already-secure place as a lightweight and inexpensive device for fitness buffs.

Sixth-gen nano: all screen, all the time

If you have read our review of the sixth-generation iPod nano, then you already know what we think of it. Once again, Apple has made a significant divergence from its typical nano form factor—the most significant since the fat nano—and the device is more shuffle-like than ever. In fact, it's less like the nano we have come to know, and more like an iPod Shuffle Extreme with its tiny form factor and clip. It differs from the shuffle, however, thanks to the screen, which makes up the entirety of the sixth-gen nano.

The UI is now radically different than the past iPod UIs have been as well. It looks and behaves like iOS devices, but is decidedly not (or at least according to Apple it's not). It's still limited in the same ways the nano is traditionally limited—it can only play music and perform a few other functions—and, in fact, the new nano has lost features compared to its predecessors. No longer does it play any kind of video, and it most certainly doesn't record video. It still has the FM tuner, pedometer, and Nike+ though, once again ensuring that the device remains a mainstay among fitness freaks.

Still, no matter how cool the nano currently is (and don't get us wrong, we think it's cool), it's beginning to feel a little old and maybe even a little unnecessary. There will always be people who want a very small music player for things like exercise and running around town, but more and more of the population already owns devices that they like, spent a good amount of money on, can do much more, and can play music (hello iPhones, iPod touches, Android phones, and whatever else the crazy kids are carrying around these days).

This isn't to say that we think the nano will get killed off anytime soon—Apple said that the iPod touch just recently overtook the iPod nano as its hottest selling iPod, so while it may be on a downward trajectory, the nano still has a good amount of life left in it. It is, however, no longer quite as fresh.

Whether you like the new form factor or not, the sixth-generation nano is here and Apple will probably sell boatloads of them.

A major element of iPod history

The iPod nano has certainly done its part over the last five years to shape the iPod brand. The original iPod (less space than a Nomad!) was introduced almost nine years ago, and the nano has been around in some form or another for more than half that time. What did you think of Apple's first truly popular flash device? And did your perceptions change as the nano evolved?